“It is sad and humiliating to note that as laxities were introduced by the hierarchy and local churches into the laws of fasting and practices of severe penance, the members of the Church have suffered immeasurable spiritual loss – a loss of at least part of the rigor of those sacred times set apart to cleanse their bodies and souls of imperfections and the corrupting spirit of the world. In our modern times, the spread of permissiveness, liberalism, deterioration of morality and the general practices of purity, have led to a spirit of relaxation and the loss of a general effort, on the part of the faithful, to strive for a life of holiness and of union with God through the practices of self-denial, mortification, piety and renouncement of the spirit of the world – a spirit which is opposed to the spirit of a true Christian life and the very possibility of eternal salvation.” – Dom Prosper Gueranger
And laxities granted by the hierarchy have only become worse with time, as the church believes it can make friends with the world. Today, Catholics have completely lost what used to be very visible as their “Catholic Identity,” which showed in the way they lived their lives. The triumph of the “spirit of vatican II” has been the triumph of our religion being reduced to just another form of protestantism.
Do you know the source for this? I could not find this in the Liturgical Year work of his.